ACROSS THE NATION.

State probes holiday blue-law violations

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS — Massachusetts' attorney general is launching an investigation into several supermarkets that opened on Thanksgiving in defiance of the state's Puritan-era blue laws.

The laws were passed in the 1600s to keep colonists at home or in church on Sundays. Parts of the laws, such as the ban on Sunday liquor sales, have been repealed, but a prohibition on most stores doing business on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day has not.

"If these stores want to open, there's a way to do it: Change the law," attorney general's spokesman David Guarino told The Boston Globe.